Generally, in a photolithography technique of manufacturing a semiconductor device, a circuit pattern is formed in a resist film by applying a photoresist to a semiconductor wafer, an FPD substrate or the like (hereinafter, referred to as a wafer or the like), exposing a resist film formed by the application to light according to a predetermined circuit pattern, and developing the exposed pattern.
In the photolithography process, bubbles of a nitrogen gas or the like and particles (foreign matters) may mix into the treatment solution such as a resist solution, a developing solution and so on to be supplied to the wafer or the like due to various causes, and the treatment solution in which the bubbles and particles mix, if supplied to the wafer or the like, may cause coating unevenness and defects. Therefore, an apparatus for removing the bubbles and particles existing in the treatment solution is provided in a pipeline for the treatment solution.
Conventionally, a treatment solution supply apparatus having a temporary storage container, a filter, and a pump which are provided in a supply pipeline connecting a supply nozzle and a treatment solution storage container, and having a circulation pipeline connected to a supply pipeline between the treatment solution storage container and the temporary storage container and to a filter and having a variable throttle provided in the circulation pipeline is known as the aforementioned kind of apparatus (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). This treatment solution supply apparatus is provided with a plurality of supply nozzles for efficiency of the treatment performed in the photolithography process and for diversification, and selectively uses the supply nozzles depending on the purpose.
In this treatment solution supply apparatus, the liquid pressure of the treatment solution from which bubbles have been removed by the filter is decreased by the variable throttle to make the gas dissolved in the treatment solution into bubbles, and the bubbles are removed by passing through the filter again via the supply pipeline from the circulation path. Therefore, the gas dissolved in the treatment solution can be efficiently removed.